The morning of closing, I walked through our soon to be home to make sure the last items that needed to be repaired were finished. Every thing looked good so we headed on over to the title company to sign the final documents. Most of the time, you will have two days before closing to do the final walk through. At this time, if you see anything that is wrong, you can bring it up before you hand over the money and sign for the home.

When it comes to preparing for the closing on your new home, a couple things to remember are:

make sure closing is not scheduled on a federal holiday – banks will be closed and you will not be able to pick up a cashiers check for your down payments.

close the second week of the month – if you close either late the first week, or during the second week, your first mortgage payment will not be due for 45+ days. However if you close as the end of the month, you will only have 30 days for the bill to come due.

close on any day other than Monday – first of all, it’s Monday so everyone is going crazy, but closing on a Monday rarely goes smoothly because most title companies and lenders will not have the paperwork completed the previous Friday (HUD statement). If you close on any other day, you will get the paperwork on time and with less headache.

don’t forget to bring your driver’s license – one thing you must have, besides the funds you owe, is a valid driver’s license. It proves who you are. There have been instances when people have “bought” homes using someone else’s identity.

There will be a lot of signing, so come prepared to write. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about what you are signing either. Too many times I see clients just sign, saying they will read the documents later. Be honest with yourself, you are about as inclined to read your mortgage documents as you are to read the dictionary front to back.

The nice thing about building new is that usually the builder will have a 3 month and 9 month checkup during the first year in which they can repair warranted items. So if anything major happens, or falls apart, write it down for the builder. For instance, one of the cabinet doors is falling apart in our kitchen, we have some nail pops in our ceiling, and a cold faucet handle does not work properly. No matter how small, make the builder aware so it can be fixed.